


Dark Horizons

by AuraWhiteFox



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Reality, BAMF! Charles, Charles Being Creeper, Darker Charles, Erik is clueless and confused, F/M, Gen, In the past-future, Kick ass and take no prisoner! Charles, M/M, Magneto Being Creepy, Maybe - Freeform, Multi, Oh and death, There might be sex, This is really dark, Time Travel, but don't worry, comfort/hurt, dub-con, most come back, non-con referenced, some major characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-08-08
Updated: 2012-08-22
Packaged: 2017-11-11 18:08:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/481363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuraWhiteFox/pseuds/AuraWhiteFox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the near future there was War, a war between humanity and mutants. </p><p>Charles Xavier has had enough of his children dying, enough of blood and tears, enough of being too weak to help those who pleaded for him to save them. When he discovers the body of the man who he had once held dear to his heart he loses the will to surive. Giving up on the world that was already dying around him, he knew that it would only be a matter of time anyway.</p><p>How was he to know that dying was the only way to save those he held dear? To save the future he had once believed in? But what future does he seek now? Not of peace…that was a dream for an optimistic fool. Not of a full blown war, he’d lived and died already from that.</p><p>Counter promise, then.</p><p>He’d bring the war to the humans…and stop it before it ever happens and maybe even take what he had wanted all those years ago…Magneto</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Professor!” A breathless yell from his right got Charles attention. He turned his head, holding a dirty rag in his left hand, his forehead had begun to bleed again and he was trying to prevent it from running into his eyes.

“Bobby.” Charles breathed out with relief. “You’re alright.”

Bobby jerked his head in a slight nod. “Yea I’m still alive, but I don’t know for how much longer, things are getting really heated out on the battle field.” Bobby paused, grief shown deeply in his eyes. “Kitty’s dead.”

Charles closed his eyes as a deep sadness echoed in his head and heart, so many have been lost already and now yet another one of his children were dead.

“If it’s not too painful…?” Charles asked tentatively.

Bobby shook his head. “She was hit with one of those gene killer guns, she was trying to protect a group of wounded soldiers for some reason, I think she may have known one of the them from before. While her back was turned…one of them shot her in the head.”

Charles felt anger well up in him along with the now constant feeling of depression.

His dreams of a peaceful world where mutants and humans could co-exist were being burned harshly from his psyche. All his previous wishes and ideals had been washed away when the damned government passed that hatred law years ago.

That law that stated that anyone with a mutated power was to be exterminated on sight, mutants now had less rights then a damned cockroach.

But like those cockroaches mutants would not taking the killing of their kind without going out with a fight and taking as many humans as they possibly could with them to the depths of hell itself.

Erik had been right all those years ago and Charles had been too foolish and optimistic to understand the truth of human nature, even with his own thesis, which he himself had stated that humans and their mutated kind couldn’t co-exist without trying to kill each other in fear of the other.

If only…Charles shook his head, this wasn’t the time to think about what if scenarios, they were only painful and pointless.

“I’m so sorry Bobby.” Charles tried to offer his condolences to the still waiting teen, Bobby just nodded his head in acknowledgement, he knew that with so many dying every day that the professor couldn’t offer more than that.

“How about the others?” Charles asked.

“Logan and Ms. Ororo are on the eastern front with a few of the older classmates. They seem to be holding their own, at least for now. Dr. McCoy is watching some of the younger students in the 3rd bunker and…Alex is burning the bodies.”

Charles is silent for a moment, “Thank you for keeping me updated my friend. Why don’t you see if you can’t find some food in the storage area? You haven’t eaten in quite some time.”

Bobby nodded and left the study, leaving Charles alone in an empty room. Not for the first time Charles damned his paralyzed legs that wouldn’t allow him to join his fellow mutants in battle where he would only be a burden.

Sitting there in his wheelchair facing a window Charles stared out into the stormy sky and thought about how much his life had changed. His life…and himself.

The war had been going on for two years now, after what William Stryker had done with Charles’s mind the whole world was now aware of mutants and their powers and the humans did what they did best, they panicked.

Not a day after Charles had almost killed every mutant and human on the planet the president of the United States and all the world leaders got together and spoke of world unity, for humans of course.

The law that called for the murder of mutants was passed that very hour, unknown to everyone until much later. Charles couldn’t have imagined that it would have come to this, Erik must have known about this but even after the law had passed and Charles waited to hear a _I told you so_ from his former friend and now ex-enemy the thought never came to him, nor had he seen Erik or any of his Brotherhood since the law passed and all mutants had to fend for themselves in order to live. Charles imagined that he was also recruiting and saving lives somewhere, hiding until he was ready to strike, this time though Charles wouldn’t stop him and if he would have him Charles would fight by his side this time, just like Erik had once wanted all those years ago, back when they had been friends and comrades in arms.

Charles had opened his home, his school to any and all mutants, no matter what their thoughts or powers were. All were welcome in order to get away from the hateful outside world that had turned on them without mercy.

Soon his old home was overcrowded with both students and adults. Babies that were only a few weeks old if that were also abandoned here in the fear that they could become mutant later in life. Charles made sure that they were taken care of though; there were a few nurses and mothers among the adults who would take in the children as if they were their own.

Because that’s what they were now, a family, every single mutant out there in the world was a part of them and Charles mourn each death that he could feel in his mind when he had used Cerebro almost constantly in order to find more of their kind to protect.

In the beginning Charles hadn’t believed the news when they talked about the new law and the killings. He didn’t know if it was because he was too horrified or if it had been arrogance but he had turned his head and resumed his work at the school, and foolishly his students followed his example. The teachers at least didn’t think as blindly as he did. They had gotten together and planned a course of action with each other, Logan became the leader in those agreements because Scott wanted to take the matter up to the professor but Logan had seen the glazed look in the old man’s eyes and had known that he couldn’t be reasoned with, not yet anyway.

They began to horde food and water, materials that would last a long time in one of the underground bunkers, they also had defensive plans in the chance that the school was found by those who would carry out the new law’s power.

Charles had known what they were doing and he hadn’t stopped them even if he thought their actions foolish. Somewhere inside of him he had known that they were in the right and was grateful that they were doing what he should have done a long time ago.

When the first of his students had fallen…that had been enough to pop Charles naive bubble.

Rogue had gone out shopping with some of her friends. They had been browsing in their favorite clothing store when a group of men had spotted them. All they’d seen was Rogue’s white hair lock and Mandy’s eyes which had pink pupils. That was it, nothing else. Both of those things could have just been a normal teenager’s rebellion act against their parents, hair color for Rogue and pink contacts for Mandy.

Before the girls knew what was happening the men had surrounded them and began to beat and taunt them. Everyone else who had been in the store had run away screaming, not once bothering to help the girls. Rogue’s friends had tried to stop them of course, tried to find a way out in order to escape but in the end it had all amounted to the same end. All of the girls had been brutally beaten to death, and only because a difference of hair and eye color.

Not one of the girls had any defensive or offensive powers except for Rogue and she couldn’t have fought all them off.

It had been a hard lesson for Charles to learn and to this day he still cries at night thinking about those young children that he could have protected if he had only been willing to believe, believe in the cruelty of man.

Everyone had taken the deaths of Rogue, Mandy, Ellie, Sarah and Jessica hard.

Bobby had been inconsolable and Logan had trashed more than one room in grief and rage. Jessica’s younger brother had stopped speaking and refused the help of everyone becoming so inverted that he stopped speaking altogether. Ellie’s boyfriend took his own life, unable to take the grief that overwhelmed him. Mandy’s best friends cried and cried at the lost of their friend. Sarah…she had been new to the school, young and shy, it had been this reason that Rogue had suggested an all girl’s outing to show Sarah how much she was welcomed to the school and to show her that they could be friends.

Sarah’s body had shown signs of sexual assault, as well as Jessica’s. They had both been 14 years old, the youngest in the group.

Charles had been physically ill for weeks after that, he had ordered a complete lock down of the school. No phone calls to the outside and no one was to leave the premises of the school without his permission, no matter the circumstances.

They hadn’t been able to get a hold of the bodies but Charles had gone into the mind of the coroner and had him cremate the bodies before they could be autopsied.

Those damned men who had done this got off scotch free because of the law. Hell they had people thanking those god-damned bastards for killing the dangerous mutants.

Charles had gone into Cerebro a few nights after the murders. It had been the middle of the night so everyone else was sleeping except for Logan and Scott who he had sent on watch and patrol. The whole school was uptight and scared at the moment, nightmares had become common and hardly anyone slept alone anymore.

Charles concentrated hard, his blinding anger was a hard thing to bypass but after a while he finally found those who had killed his students. He had gone into their minds and had been stricken by their poisonous thoughts. They had enjoyed what they’d done to Rogue and the others and had done it many times before, even before the law had passed. They found anyone who looked or acted different and beat them until their last breath left their bloody bodies.

Most the people they had killed hadn’t even been mutants either, just kids and adults who didn’t fit the norm of society.

Charles had been enraged and in his anger destroyed each mind one by one. He twisted and yanked hard on the nerves of the men until they were screaming out in pain and fear. He made them experience all the horrors that they had inflicted on their victims.

Finally he killed them, leaving them to chock on their own blood. He had left Cerebro and gone into his room. He laid on his back in bed and stared blankly at the ceiling and try as he might, he couldn’t find a single thought or feeling of remorse for what he had done.

Erik would be proud no doubt.

That had been two years ago and ever since then things had begun to go downhill. Charles finally took notice of what was really happening out in the world and one of his first acts in order to fight back had been to use Cerebro to destroy the minds of several world leaders who encouraged mutant hunting.

That may not have been the smartest or the most diplomatic way to solve things but the time for diplomacy was over. They were finally at war.

A World War.

They called it the War for Humanity, at least the humans did, and the mutants called it the Holocaust part 2. At least the more cynical of them did. The rest of them didn’t bother giving the war a name. It could be World War 3 for all they cared about. Why bother naming a war that wasn’t much of a war but instead a massacre of an entire species?

The humans had their guns and bombs, thankfully it hadn’t yet degraded into nuclear war but Charles knew that it was only a matter of time until such a terrible act was passed.

The mutants would survive it, mostly intact. Charles wasn’t worry about that, what he was worried about was the state the planet would suffer in consequence.

 

\-----

 

Charles maneuvered his chair around the cots, smoothing the children and adults that were caught in nightmares. Well-more like it was their memories that were causing them such distress.

He grimaced as he rolled over towards the cot that Scott was laying on. The young man was thrashing around in his sleep, calling out Jean’s name in a broken, defeated voice.

Charles let out a weary sigh before placing his hands upon Scott’s forehead.

Sending smoothing emotions he lured Scott’s mind into a deeper sleep, one without dreams.

Once Scott was lying still and in deep REM sleep Charles moved on. At the moment there was a cease fire on both sides, time to bury their dead and plan new ways of attack. It would only last 24 hours but there were many young men and women who needed that rest time desperately.

For a year Charles Xavier had managed to hide his school and his students from the outside world. But somehow the humans had gotten hold of the location of the school. To this day Charles still has no idea how they had come upon it, while Stryker had known the location of the mansion when he’d broken Magneto’s mind Charles doubted that he would have shared that information with any other organization, and when the valley had flooded he assumed that all the information that Stryker had was washed away to the bottom of the newly formed lake.

Maybe he shouldn’t have assumed anything.

Because they had been preparing for such a scenario the x-men hadn’t totally been unprepared for when the humans launched their assault on the school.

They’d held their own for six months but there had been too many of them, finally in a last desperate act Charles had used Cerebro to contact any and all mutants nearby in a plea for help, he hadn’t expected much, maybe a couple of Alpha or Beta levels, those who were willing to lay down their lives for the children.

He shouldn’t have underestimated the brotherhood of mutants.

Less than 24 hours after he made his plea for help over one hundred mutants arrived at the campus, bypassing the humans with both stealth and force.

Most of them were Alpha and Beta mutants but quite a few of them were surprisingly Omega class, powerful mutants that had come from all over the world in order to protect the students of his school.

Charles had never been more humbled and grateful in his entire life.

It was only because of these reinforcements that the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning now known as The Haven for Mutant Kind lasted for as long as it did.

But they were still too few and humanity was much larger in terms of manpower.

It was inevitable that they would fall despite everyone’s best effort. Everything was too little…too late.

Charles blamed himself and others like him for that. If he hadn’t been such a pacifist then maybe things would have been different. Maybe not better…but Charles honestly believed that it couldn’t get much worse than this.

“Professor?” A timid voice called out.

Charles turned his head to address the student that had walked up to him.

“Ah Laurie, is there something I can do for you?” Charles asked.

The young woman bit her lip nervously; obviously unsure of what she wanted to say. Charles waited patiently for the girl to speak.

Laurie Collins had been a new student of his before this war had begun, she hadn’t had much control of her power but once the war started she had to sink or swim. Charles had taken the time to try to get her to harness her power to little affect. It had sadly taken the death of her mother and best friend for Laurie the power to bend her mutation to her will.

The power to control others emotion was a powerful tool and Laurie was one of the mutants’ most powerful players. Despite that Charles didn’t use her that often, only in dire need, her mind was fragile enough after the deaths of her family and friends and Charles didn’t want her breaking any time soon, not when they might need her in the future.

If Charles knew two years ago that he would have thoughts of callously using one of his precious students in such a way he would have immediately called a mind healer, because obviously that person was having mental delusions and was unstable.

But Charles has had time, too much if you asked him, in accepting what must be done nowadays.

“I w-was wondering if y-you’d look at Trey. H-he was assigned to t-the front yesterday and now he won’t eat or sleep.” Laurie stuttering began to disappear as her concern for her friend overrode her natural shyness.

“Of course.” Charles said smoothly and followed after the relieved girl.

They came to a cot near the back of the bunker, a young boy no older than 13 laid atop in an almost catatonic manner. Charles swallowed harshly, he knew that they would have need for some of the younger students’ powers but to see what they were doing to these young boys and girls was a hard thing to bear.

Charles wheeled to the cot until he was near Trey’s head. The young boy was gazing upward, his eyes open but unclear.

 _Oh you poor child_ Charles couldn’t help but broadcast. Turning his head to the anxious looking girl he spoke.

“Laurie won’t you be a dear and fetch Trey here some water? I believe that Dr. McCoy is handing out bottles over in Bunker 3.”

Laurie showed some surprised at being addressed but with a determined look edged with desperation she agreed.

“Of course Professor.”

Charles didn’t turn to watch her leave, but kept his gaze and attention firmly on the catatonic child instead.

 _I am so sorry Trey that I couldn’t protect you from this._ Charles had no more tears to weep but if he could cry he would have at this moment. Touching Trey’s temples Charles slid inside of Trey’s mind…what was left of it that is.

Trey’s body wasn’t just catatonic, his mind and soul were gone as well. There was nothing but an empty space where the mind of a child should have been.

Charles didn’t stay in the void for very long; only long enough to confirm what he had been dreading but knew was true.

Trey was already dead. His body just hadn’t gotten the memo yet.

Pulling out he dry heaved, his empty stomach protesting the action but the urge to throw up was overwhelming, Charles didn’t know if it was a blessing or a curse that he hadn’t eaten anything today, dry heaving hurt but it was better than the acid taste of regurgitated food, food that they couldn’t afford to waste.

Casting one last look at the boy…no young man, with what Trey experienced and gone through he deserved at least to acknowledged for the adult that he had become, even if it had been unwillingly.

Leaning a hand down Charles closed Trey’s eyelids gently, masking the deathly stillness with the illusion of sleep.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Laurie returning with a small bottle of water clutched tightly in her hands. Her face was a mixture of worried and knowing.

“How is he Professor?”

Charles was silent for a moment, just gazing at the flint edged expression on Laurie’s face.

“He won’t be waking up Laurie, but I believe that you already knew that.” Charles said gently.

The sternness from Laurie’s face melted into a look of despair. Her eyes overflowed with tears while she valiantly tired to keep from sobbing.

“I knew” She managed to breath out. “B-but I had hoped that maybe you c-could have d-done something.”

Charles gazed at her with sad eyes. “I’m so sorry.” He whispered gently.

“No, it’s…well it’s not alright but it’s not your f-fault either professor. Trey’s p-power had always been unstable at the best of t-times. It was bound to happen sooner or later.” She had managed to gain control of her tears and was speaking in a much clearer voice.

Was it right to feel both proud and despair at her acceptance that had become their reality? Charles wondered, not for the first time.

“Yes, Trey’s healing and empathy had always been a tad wild. He was a wonderful person and friend and he will be remembered Laurie.” Charles’s voice held a certain kind of resolution. The kind that came from seeing too much and not being able to do much.

Laurie watery smiled at him and handed him the water bottle.

“You should drink this professor, the doctor told me you had nothing to drink or eat for a while.”

Charles accepted the small token. “Thank you Laurie.”

Laurie hesitated for a moment before asking. “Are you going to give Trey to Alex?”

Charles closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see Laurie’s expression when he answered. “You know I have to but I’ll make sure that…his body won’t feel any pain.”

“…Thank you professor.” Laurie’s voice was already fading as she walked away.

“No my dear, thank you.” Charles whispered into the quiet and empty space.

He kept his body still for a moment in thought before raising his hand slowly to his temple to contact Alex.

 _Alex?_ Charles waited a moment before getting a tired replay.

_Yes Professor?_

_Another one has fallen…I’m so sorry to ask but-_

_I know. I’ll pick up the body._ The tired acceptance that echoed in Alex’s mind was like a blow to the stomach.

Charles hesitated then thought with determination. _I will be coming with you._

 _Professor…_ The worry was plain to hear in Alex’s thoughts.

 _I’ve made up my mind._ There was no changing his mind, besides it wasn’t the first time and Alex surly knew that it wouldn’t be the last.

It didn’t take long for Alex to make his way to where Charles waited with the body of Trey.

Alex took one look at the boy, his body shuddering. Alex had aged well since Charles had first met him when he had been a youth. A small smattering of grey freckled his blond hair and age lines crinkled around his tried eyes and downturned mouth.

“Another child?” He murmured before bending down and picking up the small frame. Charles didn’t respond back, he knew that it wasn’t necessary to give Alex an explanation. Trey was not the first one to lose their mind and wouldn’t be the last.

Following after Alex they made their way further into the underground, passing huddled groups of men and women, everyone had a look of hopelessness and grim determination, an odd mix but strangely appropriate in such a situation as theirs.

As they walked, or in the case of the professor, wheeled the hallway began to empty the further they went until it was just them.

The walk to Cerebro wasn’t a long one but agonizing in its own way. After he last used it to call the mutants to him Cerebro broke down, now it was nothing more than a lump of metal parts. Hank hadn’t had the tools to fix it and without Erik’s help…well, they had left it as a lost cause.

The room was used for something else now.

Once they arrived at the door leading into the former remains of Cerebro Charles opened the doors, they walked in silence, Charles closing the doors silently behind them.

“Are you sure about this Charles?” Alex’s softly asked even though he already knew the answer.

Charles simply said “Yes.”

Alex nodded and didn’t say anything further. He walked forward and placed Trey at the end of the walkway before walking back towards Charles.

“Alright I’m ready.” Alex’s voice was void of any feeling. It was the only way he could do things like this was to cut himself from his emotions. Not even Charles could feel anything from him.

Charles placed an unwavering hand on his temple, concentrating on Trey’s body he cut all the nervous system threads from his brain…and placed his own instead.

No one but Alex knew that he did this, this twisted punishment he gave himself.

He didn’t even know why he did it, maybe he wanted to redeem himself for his mistakes that he’d made in his life, maybe because the children were the ones to suffer when they should never had too.

After making sure the connection was there he gave Alex the go head.

Alex let out a concentrated blast of energy, burning and melting Trey’s body.

Charles knew that Alex was trying to make it quick by increasing the heat little by little.

Maybe Alex had just gotten tired of hearing Charles scream out in agony next to him.

Charles had died so many time in these past few years that he’d lost count and it didn’t matter that it wasn’t his own body that was dying, whenever Charles could he would project his own consciousness into the dying mind and body of a fellow mutant, to feel what they felt and thought in their last few moment. That was his atonement.

That was his sin.


	2. Chapter 2

If anyone were to be looking for Charles they would find that the older man in one of the long abandon rooms that made up the upper part of the mansion, completely preoccupied with analyzing something with an older model microscope. 

It was unwise to stay above ground if you weren’t fighting, the air raids the humans took part in had left most of the mansion crippled and husked out, which made the building completely defenseless, not to mention a safety hazard. Most of the upper rooms had been destroyed and the whole left wing of the building had collapsed upon itself, leaving nothing but rumble. 

There was some parts that still stood though, the lower levels were in somewhat sound shape and if needed you could venture out without worrying too much about a piece of brick falling on your head, but only in areas that had already been checked out by at least three of the X-Men, if you can get three of them to approve of a level or room then it was deemed safe enough, and considering the level of paranoia they all had that was saying quiet a lot. 

But it wasn’t the bombed and hollowed out house that was the problem, it was everything outside of the house that posed a serious danger.

The room that Charles was currently in had once been Hank’s old laboratory, back when they had first all moved into the mansion, all those decades ago. After Hank had trashed it when the serum he’d made further mutated the young man until he was the Hank of today it had mostly been abandon. Charles had given him a much larger space in another wing, but that wing had been the first to fall when the humans had dropped their missiles on them. So now the old lab was the only place they had left with the equipment left to analyze anything nowadays, unfortunately the equipment hadn’t really been updated since it’s abandonment.

It had been a week since their last resting break and Charles didn’t want to admit it, least of all to himself, that the humans were gaining a serious upper hand in the battles lately.

Charles didn’t know how but somehow the humans had enough understanding of the X-gene to create a specific virus that only seemed to harm mutants. At least Charles assumed that it only hurt the species homo superior and not their lesser half, homo sapiens. Since they hadn’t been able to gain a sample of the toxic they hadn’t been able to analyze anything yet. They could only speculate and since most of the soldiers that fought them didn’t know anything of use other then the order, shoot to kill Charles found it useless to try to gain any knowledge from their empty heads. Of course he never left without a parting gift to those soldiers, most of the minds that he invaded didn’t make it back to the battle field, instead they had to shipped out.

Sad, how much a war like this caused a person to have a complete and total psychotic break. Gibbering masses the lot of them.

Charles knew that he shouldn’t find pleasure and satisfaction with the breaking of minds, especially since only a few years ago he had been totally disgusted at the very idea of doing something so unethical.

Nowadays it was practically a hobby.

At the current moment, Charles was examining his own blood in the hopes that he could figure out just how the virus worked in targeting the blood. Because while they may not have a sample of the toxic that didn’t mean they didn’t know how it destroyed the mutants it touched.

Charles wasn’t a scientific genius like Hank was, he could talk theory until he was blue in the face but sometimes the specifics went right over his head. Jean would have been a great help in figuring out what the virus was but she was gone and Hank was busy taking care of the younger children most days, they seemed to find his bulking body comforting, a fact that both pleased and dismayed the poor man.

Charles rubbed his aching forehead, trying to massage away the pain that had been plaguing him for days now. He didn’t know where the pain was coming from since he hadn’t been overusing his powers. In fact, he’d hardly used them at all for the past few days. Scott and the others thought it would be best for him to take a rest and build up his strength again before unleashing it on the human troops outside.

Maybe it was just stress, Charles thought with ill humor. 

Sighing he gave up trying to make the pain go away and went back to work, doing his best to ignore the dull throb in his temple that seemed to beat along the same rhythm as his heartbeat.

“Ah Charles I didn’t realize that this was where you’d gone off too.” A bemused voice called from the door.

“Hank.” Charles looked up with a tired smile.

Hank nodded his head at the mess on the table. “What are you up to now Charles?” 

Charles sighed, “Oh my old friend, I’m afraid to say that I’m at a loss.”

“Why don’t you tell me what you’re trying to do and we’ll see if I can help.” Hank said, dragging a wobbly chair over towards Charles. His furred face showed how weary he was, before the chaos that had descended upon them Hank had hardly looked his age, instead he had looked decades younger, something that had annoyed Alex no doubt, but now the mutant’s face had deep lines and wrinkles folding over themselves, showing everyone that the stress that Hank and the rest of them were under was affecting him.

“Who’s watching the children?” Charles couldn’t help but ask, it was unusually for Hank not to be the one watching the younger mutants. He’d been appointed the main caregiver for the younger generation after the children had shown how much they preferred his company, taking care of the needs of those who couldn’t do it themselves.

“Ororo’s is watching them at the moment, I believe that she’s telling them a story right now. The children seem to like it so I left her to it. I’ll go back when it’s time for them to eat.” Hank said simply.

Charles nodded and looked back at the pile of papers in front of him, a bunch of it was old tests and data from years past. 

“I’m trying to figure out how the virus is affecting us. We know that it must target the X-gene but I want to know why? Also how did they government create such a vile thing? Do they have a mutants imprisoned? Did some defect? I’m hoping if I can figure out some of that I can work to create some kind of vaccine or at least something that will help boost our own immune system enough to fight the virus.”

Hank listened calmly before saying his piece.

“I’ve also been thinking about this lately. The humans had only been using this gene-killer for a few months now so it has to either be a recent development or something they’ve been hiding and have only just now decided to use. Either way it’s not good for us. With all the uprising that’s happening in the world I would be surprised that the humans had enough time to come up with something like this.”

Charles nodded. “So it could have been something that was created some time ago and is only now in use. Why though? Why now?”

Hank appeared deep in thought. “Maybe they hadn’t perfected it until now? Or something else happened that we can’t predict? What if there was a change in command? There are many different reasons for why they choose to use the virus now. We can’t take the time to worry about that my friend. What we can do is try to isolate why it kills only mutants. If only we could get a sample of the virus.”

“It is unfortunate that the virus self destructs after killing the victim. As much as the idea sickens me I would have liked to autopsy one of its victims.”

“I understand Charles, as much as the idea also makes me ill it would have been beneficial for us all if we could have examined the virus ourselves.”

Charles agreed tiredly. He was so tired lately, he almost couldn’t remember a time when he had been healthy and energetic.

Looking over at Hank Charles was surprised to see Hank rubbing his forehead with his paws, a look of intense pain on his face.

“Headache?” Charles asked sympathetic. 

“Yes, I’ve had it for almost a week now. It just won’t go away no matter how much rest I try to get.”

Something Hank said triggered a warning in Charles’s head.

“Really? Are you the only one or is anyone else suffering from head pains?”

“Well now that you mention it there does seem to be a lot of people with headaches lately, I know that Ororo and Scott have been complaining and several of the children are also suffering from slight head pain.” Hank answered, perplexed at where this was going.

“I’ve also been experiencing the same. I wonder…”

“Charles it’s probably just a coincidence-“

“How likely is it that we’re all suffering from the same thing and there’s no cause to panic?” Charles interrupted.

Hank hesitated then reluctantly conceded to Charles’s point. “Slim.”

“I thought so.” Although knowing that he was right didn’t make him feel any better, in fact he felt even worse off.

“Hank if you will consent to donating a small bit of blood I would like to analyze it against mine and see what I’ve missed.” 

If it was what Charles thought then they were all in trouble.

 

\-----

 

“Shit, you were right.”

Charles didn’t feel up to scolding Hank about his language when in fact he felt like joining him. In fact he had some very creative profanity he felt like trying out, in as many different languages as he could think of.

He had been right, as much as he damned himself for it.

There had been a connection between why everyone was experiencing head pain lately.

It was because they were all infected.

Somehow, Charles didn’t know when or how or even where, but somehow they’d all become exposed to an air born version of the x-gene killer.

They were all dying, just at a slower pace than those who have been shot with a concentrated dosage.

Charles closed his eyes tightly, he didn’t want to look at the evidence, in fact he’d rather burn everything in front of him and then burn the memories from his mind.

But unfortunately Hank wouldn’t allow him to do such a thing.

“Professor…what are we going to tell the others?” Hank asked, a devastated tone in his voice. Charles winched as he heard it, he looked at his long term friend. Hank had been the only one to truly stay with him all these years.

Sean had left a few years after he’d gotten a good grasped of his power, last Charles had heard of him was that he’d become a father and was teaching music at an academy two states away. 

That was of course before war broke out.

Alex had come and gone many times over the years, sometimes they wouldn’t hear from him for years and then out of the blue he’d show up again with a few more scars and a empty void in his eyes.

Charles knew how much it tore Hank to see Alex like that. It had once annoyed Charles that Hank was suppressing his feelings for Alex for all these years but he didn’t say anything.

How could he? After all he was as much a hypocrite as Hank was. Charles didn’t know if Alex knew about Hank’s feelings towards him and he’d never pried it from his mind either. That was all their business, the only reason Charles knew in the first place was because Hank had come to him years ago, drunk and distraught and told him everything.

“I-I don’t know my friend.” Charles said truthfully.

“We don’t have any kind of antidote. We don’t even know what it truly is! Charles…if what these test say is true…we may only have a couple of weeks at best. All of us.”

“If only we had more time.” Charles snarled out suddenly. Feeling overwhelmed with despair and anger at the situation the humans had placed upon them.

But that was the crunch of it wasn’t it? Time, the one thing they had less of each minute that passed them by.

Hank put his head in his hands. Charles tried to ignore the sobs that were bursting forth from him. 

“A-all those children…” Hank sobbed. Because of course Hank didn’t think about himself, he only thought his charges, the young ones that looked up at him with such sad, yet hopeful eyes, knowing that while things were terrible right now somehow Hank would find a way to make things better for them. 

No doubt the man felt like he had failed every last one of them, because that was what Charles was feeling at the current moment.

Charles felt every one of his long years, his bones felt old and brittle and his mind felt heavy with age and the events that were transpiring around them.

“I know Hank.” He said quietly, sorrowfully. “I know.”

“What are we going to do Charles?” Hank asked, his throat still sounded like he could burst into tears at any moment but for now he seemed to be trying to control it.

“There isn’t enough time to make a vaccine, even if we had a sample and the equipment.” Charles said practically, his voice was almost emotionless too. Except for a slight tremor of rage and fear that threaded his voice. “We can’t be saved; I’ve only just started to try to figure out what the virus is. Without knowing what it is and how it triggers death in mutants I’m afraid I’m running blind. We don’t-” Charles paused, hesitant for a moment but then managed to speak further. “I don’t know what we can do at this point except to accept the inevitable.”

“Bullshit!!”

Charles eyes widen as he gapped at Hank who was now snarling at him in fury.

“I’m sorry Charles but that is complete and utter bullshit and you know it. So what? Just because the odds are terrible we should just give up? Roll over and die? Well fuck you very much old man! But I haven’t spent the last two years living in complete and absolute hell only to give up at the last moment. So I’m going to fight and I will continue to fight until the last breath is wrenched from my dead body! So go hide professor, just like you always do. I will figure this out myself if I have too!!” Hank roared with rage and desperation, his stood to his full height, an impressive 6’5 and his fur seemed to actually stand to attention, he looked like a pissed off jungle cat.

Charles blinked in shock at his raging friend. Even though he’d just been insulted and lectured he couldn’t help but smile at his friend’s energy.

It was good to see that not everyone had given up, like so many of them already had.

“I’m sorry Hank, I didn’t mean to sound like I was giving up.” He said softly as Hank continued to fume at him, no doubt still annoyed with him.

“I’m just so…tired.” Charles admitted. “Of a lot of things, I had never imagined that this was the way it would have turned out. If I had known…” 

“You would have joined Erik and Raven.” Hank finished for him.

Charles hung his head, ashamed. “Yes, I would have. I would have allowed Erik to take those missiles and bombs and blown those ships out of the water. I would have done so many things different.”

“No you wouldn’t, not really.” Hank confidently said.

Charles glared at him. “You think I would have allowed all this to happen if I knew?!”

“No you misunderstood me. I just meant that you wouldn’t have allowed Magento- _Erik_ to kill all those humans then and there, you would have stopped him and then planned every single assassination yourself to carry out later. Erik was always more of a cannon blazing kind of guy. You’re more likely to slip a poison pill in your enemies drink as you sat across from them and smiled pleasantly.”

Charles gapped at him. This-this was what Hank thought him capable of?!

“Oh don’t look so dismayed Professor, I know you can be even more ruthless then Erik at times. You’re just more subtle about it. It’s not a bad thing, especially nowadays.”

Charles couldn’t help but agree, even if it horrified him to do so. He may have finally accepted the more ruthless side of himself but that didn’t mean he liked others to know or acknowledge it.

“So now what?” Hank asked, slightly bemused, his anger seemed to have simmered for now.

Charles sighed and looked over the test results again. They’d gone back underground and taken a few samples of blood from the other x-men a few hours ago. The results had all been the same, they were all contaminated.

They hadn’t tested the children yet, and Charles didn’t believe they had too. While most of the children hadn’t been topside for years they were all experiencing the same headaches as the rest of the mutants. Which meant that not only is the toxin air born it could adapt to other ways of infection, like skin contact or liquid based.

It truly was a foul creation.

“I estimated that we have at the very most two weeks to live, and that’s the most powerful of us, the ones with the most strength to spare. The weaker ones…the children will undoubted be the first to suffer. Likely the symptoms will show themselves in as few as three days from now.” Hank addressed, while looking over his own results.

“Are you sure about that?” Charles asked. “I know we’re only experiencing headaches now but can it really get that sever in only a few days?”

“Remember Charles how this kills, usually it only takes a few moments, having days is actually astonishing.” Hank answered dryly.

“Touché.” Charles snorted.

They sat there then and thought it out together. They knew that they’d need to tell the others of what they had found. Even with his earlier thoughts of wanting to remain ignorant he couldn’t help but feel gratefully of the foreknown knowledge. 

They didn’t have a lot of time but at least they’d know what was going on when the first of them fell.

Not much comfort no, but there wasn’t much of that nowadays anyway.


	3. Chapter 3

“Hey Charles? Come look at this.” Hank said after what felt like hours of staring down into old microscopes and compiling data from computers that were older then some of his students.

“Hmm?” Charles asked, as he worked out some kinks from his neck and arms. They would need to alert the others soon about what they’ve found. Charles didn’t doubt for a second that they were panicking a bit right now, although in a calm manner. 

Charles and Hank had both been gone for a little over three hours now, a long time, considering the circumstances. No one liked to be unaware of anyone else’s location for longer than they had too. They’d already lost so much…and in all seriousness will probably keep on losing.

Hank gestured to the microscope in front of him. Charles’s wheeled over to Hank’s table and leaned over to see what Hank had been working on.

“What am I looking for?” He asked, but even as the question left him mouth his eyes had narrowed to the problem…or maybe the solution.

“Is this…?” He gasped.

“Not really, I’ve managed to isolate a small fraction of the virus. Not enough to make a proper vaccine, even if I did have the equipment. But you see it don’t you?”

“Yes…the virus…it’s clanging to our blood cells.” Charles said, horror and amazement clear in his voice.

“Not just clanging, take a closer look.” Hank encouraged.

Charles did as directed, it took him a moment but he finally grasped what Hank had seen.

“Oh!” He exclaimed. “It’s like they magnetized to each other!!” 

He lifted astonished eyes to Hank. “How is that possible? There aren’t any indications that this could be possible before. For a virus, for a bacteria to be magnetized to a living blood cell, and for the cell to be magnetized back!! It’s beyond belief- beyond any known science!!”

Hank nodded in agreement. “I don’t know how they did it. They must have some truly gifted scientists on their side to be able to create such a thing. It worries me though, how would they do this in the first place? I can maybe understanding if they had magnetized it to go after person’s blood they already have, but to the gene itself? That’s creative, not to mention completely immoral.”

“I couldn’t agree more, my friend. Why don’t we change our thinking for a minute,” An idea was beginning to form in Charles’s head, “why not think of our blood as just a different blood type.” Seeing Hank’s uncomprehending look he tried to explain further.

It didn’t take long for Hank to grasp what Charles was trying to tell him.

“Damn those clever bastards.” Hank swore. “Charles I’m not sure how to fix this. The virus seems to have bonded with our blood already. Even with a vaccine I don’t think that anyone that already has the virus could be cured. Maybe if they took a vaccine before they are infected. You know, like an immunization. But I’m afraid…” Hank sighed sadly.

“I know Hank.” Charles said. “Let’s not tell the others that part though okay? He asked, worried about the level of panic that would no doubt insure if word got out.

Hank seemed hesitant about keeping it secret but agreed in the end. While neither of them liked giving away false hope it was better than telling them all that there wasn’t anything that they could do. It would be bad enough when word got around that everyone was affected and by then the symptoms would be showing up and the first deaths would occur.

“Well then, should we go back down?” Hank said as he stood and stretched, he gathered up as many samples and papers as he could. They would need the evidence for the others. Charles nodded and gathered up some files as well. Trying and failing not to feel jealous as he watches Hank walk. He hated his useless legs more than ever at that moment. It didn’t matter how many years went by, for Charles not a day went by that he didn’t feel resentment for the world about the loss of his lower half, he may have gradually accepted the loss but that didn’t mean that he had to like it. Not that anyone else picked up on his feels on the matter; he had decades of practice in handling his anger after all, one of the perks of being a high level telepathic.

 

\----

 

“WHAT?!” Logan roared angrily.

Charles sighed for what felt like to be the hundredth time.

After Hank and him had gone back underground they’d found the rest of what was left of the x-men waiting for them by the entrance. They’d been about to go to the surface to look for them, but a quick thought send had stopped them from mobilizing and instead they were waiting patiently with ticked off facial expressions.

Charles didn’t remember the last time he’d gotten such a scolding from Scott and Ororo. It was almost refreshing, despite making him feel lower then dirt.

Logan wasn’t the only one to react with anger and disbelief, Ororo was sitting in a chair and shaking, tears rolled down her face as she stared unseeingly at a nearby wall. Charles could hear the distant sound of thunder from above. Scott was standing like Logan and was shouting out denials and curses. Bobby was strangely quiet in the corner, just watching everyone else react to the news and Alex...

The moment that Hank had told them the amount of time they had left he had gotten up from his chair and walked out the door. Hank had a look of devastation on his face as he watched the man he not so secretly loved walk out the door without looking back.

Charles knew that Hank wanted to follow him but unfortunately he needed him here. Charles could explain it by himself but Hank was the doctor and scientist of their group. The others were more likely to believe him then Charles, and while that shouldn’t sting he couldn’t help but feel betrayed by their lack of faith in him. Not that he blamed them, he knew that he had lead them astray more than once these past few years. Especially since he’d once been the forerunner for human and mutant co-existence.

“Logan, Scott. Please sit down.” Charles asked calmly. Logan growled at him but sat down, Scott did the same, minus the growl.

“Alright I’m sure you all have questions.” Charles began but was interrupted before he could go any further.

“Questions? Of course we have questions!” Ororo all but screamed suddenly. “But that’s not what this is about is it Professor.” It wasn’t a question. “I can tell your avoiding telling us but I know it’s true…you can’t make a cure, am I right?” She glared at them, as if everything was their fault.

Hank and Charles shared a dismayed but resigned look. They knew that the others were smart and would figure it out; they’d just hoped that it would take them a bit longer than an hour.

Charles took a good hard look at the others sitting around them. They’d invited a few of the other adults into the meeting, so far they’d all been quiet but each and everyone one of them had a look of defeated terror in their eyes.

“No my dear…I’m afraid that we can’t.” Charles said as gently as he could, given the circumstances.

“So that’s it? We just die now?” One of the mutants asked.

“No.” Hank growled loudly. “We do not give up! If we’re going to die and let’s face it, we all knew it was coming sooner rather than later, let’s take as many of those sons-of-a-bitches with us as we can!!” 

Hank really was a great motivational speaker, Charles thought bemusedly as he watched the fires light up in many a mutant eyes. They were all determined not to go down without a fight.

Still…too little…too late.

 

\--

 

 

The first ones that began to succumb to the pathogen were as Hank predicted. The younger and weaker of the children, as well as the more elderly and sickly mutants. It was barely half a week since they had made the discover and already there was panic in the bunkers.

The deaths hadn’t been peaceful either, the complete opposite in fact.

It began with a headache, which steadily grew worse as the days passed, then the mutant will develop a hacking cough that came from deep in the lungs, soon after that the mutant would become feverish, sweating constantly and complaining of the heat, and yet to all that touched them they would remain cold to the touch. 

They couldn’t stomach anything and even threw up the little bit of broth and water that Charles and the rest of them forced them to consume.

A day after the last of symptom showed up the mutant would die. 

Charles’s took a small sip from the water bottle that Scott had practically forced him to take when the young man noticed that his mentor hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for two days.

It wasn’t like Charles was trying to starve himself, he just forgot in all the chaos that he’d tried to control, with little luck.

All those who were feeling even the slightest bit ill were confined to a cot on Hank’s orders. The elderly hadn’t gone willingly but they had been too weak to give much protest by that point. The children just did as they were told, some silently crying while others were staring defiantly at all who passed by them.

All those who still felt strong and had offensive powers were topside currently, taking out as many of the humans as they could, trying to take their despair and wrath out on as many bodies as they could before they were gunned down or exhaustion would set in. Charles wondered faintly if the human soldiers were surprised by how…vigorous the mutants had become suddenly.

He didn’t doubt that those who were on the higher chain of command had some idea of why the mutants were acting this way.

Hank had to be ordered by Charles to stay underground to tend to the patients, for some reason he seemed to be fairing fairer then the rest of them. Even Charles’s headache was getting worse, so much so that even using his powers sparely to communicate with the others that were outside taxed him dreadfully and he had to go into one of the darken bunkers to rest his eyes.

He took another slow sip of water, Scott had been right. He couldn’t afford to get anymore dehydrated then he already was. It was his responsibility to make sure that the human officers mixed up their plans and spoiled their own food sources. Not much but Charles was an old man, where once upon a time he could have frozen a whole room of people he was lucky to influence the mind of three simple minded humans at a time. He’d really fallen from the once powerful man he had been. There were many more powerful telepathic out there nowadays he was sure, if only he could contact them. But with Cebreo down for the count and Charles’s powers at a all time low that was more than a little impossible.

To be frank, Charles was disgusted by his own lack of power. To have once have enough power at his disposable to have rivaled Jean’s alter ego Phoenix at her full strength, then have to lose it all to the passage of time and age and most of all- the under use of his own powers. It had weakened him.

Maybe he should go topside again. There had to be something he missed when he’d been going over the blood results. When he and Hank had been topside that one time they had only worked for a few hours before declaring the virus incurable, it wasn’t impossible that they had missed something vital. 

Despite Hank’s motivational speech at the meeting Charles knew that they were all too use to giving up and it wasn’t like he was of much use down here. He had exhausted himself a few hours earlier when he’d gotten one of the human captains to slip a fair bit of arsenic in the morning soup. 

The enemies camp had substance heavy losses today just by Charles little slip of the mind. It should have sickened Charles that he felt perverse pleasure in the deaths of 68 men and women.

But those 68 men and women and all those still alive outside wanted the death of all of his children and friends, just because of a difference in DNA. That was something that he wouldn’t allow, never again.

As Charles sat there he came to the sick conclusion that he was willing, more then, to kill every single mutant, child or otherwise, as gently and as quickly as he could before he let the humans have their sick ways with them, he’d kill his friends, mercifully of course, before he allowed even one to be captured.

He’d been in their minds often enough to know that most of the humans out there had some pretty sick ideals of what should be done to a mutant, some sexual, most tortuous, all grotesque.

Quickly giving his half empty bottle to a passing mutant he wheeled out of the room before he could scream and he was sure once he started that he wouldn’t be able to stop, for any reason and now wasn’t the time for anyone to have any doubts.  
So having him, former headmaster of the school and once one of the most powerful mutant on the whole planet lose his mind and begin to scream out loud at nothing would be caused for concern.

He arrived at the lift that they had installed years ago when the elevator had collapsed upon itself years ago. They never kept the entranced unwatched since it was the only way to get to the surface. He smiled tightly at the mutant manning the controls.

“You sure you want to go up Professor? I heard it’s getting really nasty up there. We’ve already had to send out our third line to carry the injured out.” The mutant- Jason was his name. Charles thought, asked with obvious concern.

“Thank you for your concern Jason, but I’ll be fine. I’m only going up for a moment to check on something in the lab. I’ll be back down quickly.” Charles assured the man.

Jason nodded, but he was clearly still unsure of the safety. Charles sighed as the lift finally moved. Sometimes it was frustrating that the younger generation of their kind treated him like some sort of frail, old man, like someone who needed protection. So what if he was in his sixties? He was in more shape then some of them, the ones who had spent most of their adolescent lives as couch potatoes.

Once Charles arrived at the top he carefully made sure the hallway was clear. Just because a human had never gotten close to the mansion before that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen.

The only ones he could sense nearby were Logan and Alex, they seemed to be guarding the parameter around school, he could also feel some of the other adults a little ways out from the school and even more further away on the fields that were used as a battle ground for the ground troops of both sides. If he lowered the mental shields he had around his mind he could literally feel the lives battled and lose against the death that overtook them all. Most of the time he made sure that his mental shields were on full force, otherwise he’d go completely mad- well more mad then he already was. 

Charles chuckled at his rather morbid thinking as he wheeled into the lab.

Making his way to the table that held several of the syringes he’d been working on before he rolled up his sleeve and got to work.

It was several hours later before he took a break, he was coming very close to letting out that scream he’d been holding in. 

He’d found nothing, nada, zip, zilch, not a damn bloody thing.

He’d taken several 10 ml vials of his own blood to experiment with.

Charles rubbed his forehead aggressively. His headache was quickly turning into a migraine, something that would no doubt put him down for the count for hours, if not days, that wasn’t even mentioning that his cough-which had started the night before had gotten worse.

To put it simply, he knew that he wouldn’t last as long as the others. He would die along with the children and elderly, leaving his older children and friends to fight for their lives on their own.

Charles leaned back in his chair, trying to let his muscles relax so that they wouldn’t knot up. He was getting tired the longer he worked. Logan had already checked up on him twice, something that should have annoyed him but only made him feel grateful and proud of his old friend’s show of his caring nature that he always tried to hide before the war.

Looking around the somewhat trashed room his eyes caught something on a far shelf on the other side of the room. Feeling inquisitive he wheeled over, making sure to avoid the spilled papers and broken beakers that littered the floor. They only used the front end of the lab, leaving the back to the mess that Hank had made long ago.

The shelf was rather low leveled which worked in his favor. Pushing past the debris that covered it he uncovered a small box, a box that had a large X on sprayed on top. The paint was old, the red mostly faded over time but it was still clear enough to identify.

Wasn’t this the method that Hank use to use back in the 60s and 70s? Charles could vaguely remember the time when Hank had used red paint to mark his experiments with a large X. The first time had been he marked the crates with the first prototype of the suits all those years ago, it was also the time he’d transformed himself into Beast with that so called cure of his, if this box had the X on it then that meant that it was over 40 years old, what could possibly be inside? 

Turning the box in his hands he saw that the lock had rusted enough that with barely a pull he had the box unlocked.

Wheeling back to the table that he’d been using before he placed the box down and examined it with a critical eye.

It was a small box, no bigger than his hand, it also didn’t have any distinguishing features or anything to give it a sense of uniqueness. It was just a tin box.

To be honest Charles didn’t know why the box had caught his attention in the first place. He had much more important things that needed to be done. He didn’t have the time to be idle minded right now.

Despite his thoughts his hands felt contradictory, they slowly reached out and opened the top. It took a bit of strength to open since it was pretty rusted all around, not just on the lock.

Once he pried his fingernail under the seal he was able to open it, though he had to sacrifice half a nail to the cause.

Sucking on his slightly bleeding finger he lifted the lid, and stared with wide eyes.

T-that can’t be possible. 

He felt dizzy as he reached out with a shaking hand and grasped the vial inside that was inside, it was the only thing that the box contained.

When Charles had gotten drunk after the New York fiasco that Magneto had caused, he finally asked Hank the question that had been on the back of his mind for years, had he created any more of the serum that had evolved Hank into Beast?

Hank, who had been equally drunk had said that he’d never made any more of his so called cure and had destroyed the formula after he’d transformed and seen the results of what he created.

But the small glass vial in Charles’s hand said otherwise.

Charles couldn’t help but stare with wide eyes at the small vial. At first Hank had hated his new outer look, for years he hardly left the mansion, only traveling during night if he had too. But as the decades passed by he’d come to accept his appearance and even welcome it. Maybe that’s why he was doing so much better than the rest of them, Charles suddenly thought.

It made sense actually, Hank was further along genetically then the rest of them since the serum had enhanced his x-gene count. It wasn’t only his looks that had changed, his speed and strength along with his senses had all changed, becoming better and more powerful, his blood had also changed although his DNA remained mostly the same. Mystique may be the only one other then Hank that was more in tune with her gene.

Although that was the point that confused him the most, if Hank’s x-gene was more active than the rest of them then he should have been the first to go when they’d been infected.

So why was having more access to the gene saving him rather than killing him outright? Especially since they knew for a fact that the virus targeted the gene specifically.

Maybe…maybe the virus was adapting? Changing into something else? It killed mutants that was true, but the virus was only as strong as the creators who made it. If it was adapting to its surrounds then the creators were smarter than they were lead to believe, most mutants had a certain amount of access to their genes and the humans knew this fact, the whole world knew this.

Mostly because of the conferences that he and Jean had attended all those years ago when they had tried to call for peace and understanding, and look at where that had gotten them?

Could they have used this knowledge somehow? It won’t save the mutant who took it, Hank was living proof of that but it would enhance that mutant’s powers greatly, maybe even enough to do some serious damage to the ones who continued to attack the school on a daily basis.


End file.
